This invention relates to non-alcoholic, or low-alcohol beer, i.e. beer having an alcohol content of maximally 3.5% by volume. In the past, much attention has already been paid to the preparation of beer having a reduced alcohol content. A summary of a number of principles and methods of brewing such beers can be found in "The Low Alcohol Revolution", Brewers Guardian, March 1987, pp. 16-18.
According to the publication in Brewers Guardian, there are basically three main groups of methods of obtaining beer having a low alcohol content:
1. restriction of the alcohol production during brewing; PA1 2. removal of alcohol after fermentation, and PA1 3. mixing normal beer with other products.
All these methods have the drawback that beers are obtained that lack the specific taste and aroma characteristics inherent in beer. Moreover, there are often off-flavours. A number of methods, and in particular those based on the removal of alcohol after fermentation, have the drawback that a substantial amount of the aroma is lost. The taste of the beer is so to say "empty". In a number of other methods, such as the application of a very short fermentation, or the mixing of normal beer with wort, there is the problem that the beer retains a typically wortlike flavour. U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,963 indicates for instance that, before fermentation, a wort has a greenish flavour. For that reason it is not used directly for the manufacture of beverages, with the exception of malt beverages on the basis of milk.